End of painful jabs is just a breath away

Published on Saturday 13 December 2008 18:48

PAIN and fear surrounding medical injections could become things of the past with a revolutionary new treatment that allows patients to inhale drugs rather than endure a needle and syringe.

Millions being treated for cancer, diabetes and even vaccines are set to be helped by the groundbreaking 'microcrystal' treatment created by Scottish scientists.

Around one in six people admit to having a fear of needles, and yet for some patients, such as those suffering from diabetes or cancer, injections are a regular necessity.

But yesterday Marie-Claire Parker, chief executive of XstalBio Limited, a spin-off from Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, said patients could be able to receive inhalable forms of their medications within five years.

The method works by using a puffer, similar to those used by asthma patients, which allows the patient to inhale a cloud of crystals through the mouth. The tiny crystals, measuring just a millionth of a metre, are each coated with the drug. They travel into the lungs then on into the bloodstream.

Drugs suitable for the method are those which are protein-based, such as herceptin for breast cancer, interferon for hepatitis C treatment, and insulin for diabetes. Vaccines including childhood jabs for measles, mumps and rubella as well as the flu inoculation are also suitable.

These currently have to be injected straight into the bloodstream, because if they were taken as tablets the stomach would digest the protein as if it were meat.

Parker said: "We are interested in getting drugs into patients in the most effective way. Inhalation is a way of getting them into the body which is safer and easier for the patient to take. You are not dealing with an injection, and often the person taking the medicine doesn't really want an injection. If you are taking a drug by a much friendlier route, uptake is higher.

"The method works by using a puffer to inhale. You breathe in the dry powder, which looks much like talcum powder. In this way you are using the lungs as a door into the body. As soon as the crystals go into the body they disappear into their constituent forms. The particles travel down through the lungs into the very bottom of the lungs and into the bloodstream. From there they could treat a disease."

Parker is also working on vaccines against smallpox and plague that could be used in biological warfare. She added: "You could see powders for inhalation which the patient takes themselves. It could be a way to take vaccines more easily."

XstalBio's work involves creating microcrystals, made from amino acids, and proteins. Once fused, the protein containing the active drug sits on the surface of the amino acid until it enters the body.

Amino acids occur naturally in the body, so are well tolerated. Once inhaled they disperse naturally, leaving the protein drug treatment to circulate into the bloodstream and do the same job it would do if it had been injected.

XstalBio is working with a number of major pharmaceutical companies, taking their molecules and conducting experiments on them in the laboratory to show that the technology can work with their drugs.

Their method is known as reformulation, because the drugs already exist but are being redeveloped to be taken in a different way. Once the formulas have been completed, the firm plans to put them through official medical trials and have the drugs available for use by NHS patients within five years.

Last night the development was welcomed by medical experts. Maria Leadbeater, a clinical nurse specialist for Breast Cancer Care, said:

"We know that cancer treatment is one area of medicine that is constantly moving forward. Injections are very invasive and can be very difficult for cancer patients, and we often have to bring them into hospital for them.

"I know that 30 years ago, when chemotherapy was not used as widely, it was not thought oral chemotherapy was likely, but now we have got it."

Fiona Godsman, director of Nexxus, central Scotland's network for life scientists, said: "This technology is one of the many examples of innovativeness and creativity which abound in central Scotland's life science industry. Innovations such as this ensure Scotland not only remains competitive in the global life science marketplace but that the industry continues to make a valuable contribution to the Scottish economy."

Case study

Isla McCurrach's, above, aggressive breast cancer meant surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and finally a year-long course of herceptin, an effective artificial antibody.

"When I was taking the herceptin, a nurse had to come to my house every three weeks and the injection took two and a half hours via a slow intravenous drip," the 49-year-old mother of two from Edinburgh said yesterday. "The treatment was fine, But because of my other cancer treatment my veins began to collapse. An inhalable form would take away the need for a drip – a big plus."